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The heat was hot and the ground was dry

You know how sometimes you can like a song without really paying attention to the lyrics? And then one day you finally notice the words in the song and realize that the song is a lot darker or dumber than it ever sounded? “A Horse with No Name” by America falls into the “dumber” category. The bit where they say “the heat was hot…” is an especial clunker, don’t you think? Plus I never really liked the song that much even before I noticed how silly the lyrics were.

And yet every time I play with my new taxidermy that song runs through my head, which is profoundly stupid because my new taxidermy set is a pair of camels, not a horse. And each of my camels had a name- they came with names. I found them on eBay, listed as “Pair of Vintage Dopey Creepy Bizarre Taxidermy Mini Camels that Freak my Dog Out”. I e-mailed back and forth with the seller a bit, he told me he’d bought them at an estate sale of an eccentric old man who had bizarre crappy taxidermy all over the house, and his best guess was that these camels were from the 70s or so, and probably made from deer fur. He also said he’d named these camels Stinkeye and Punk Face.

This one is Stinkeye:

And this is Punk Face:

Aren’t they rather hideous? In the listing, the seller’s description was as follows:

“What can I say about these two awful little piles of fur that would make anyone want to buy them? They are creepy, evil and dopey looking. Just look at them. The bigger one gives me the chills as it stares at the smaller one with the biggest look of confusion on its goofy face while the smaller one looks like it’s plotting to kill me in my sleep. They are hand made furry monsters that nightmares are made of and even my dog thinks so as he never stops barking at them. Who can blame him though, he’s scared.”

Funny enough, I was the only bidder. And despite the reported reaction of the seller’s dog, Giles was indifferent to them. He’s used to taxidermy by now and he’s not interested because they don’t seem to involve walks or cookies. Therefore taxidermy is of no use to him.

Jimmy, on the other hand, found them interesting.

He examined them from every angle, finally offering an uncharacteristically gentle kiss to Stinkeye’s face.

So I guess he likes them. The whole time I took these pictures, “A Horse with no Name” kept running through my head, because camels remind me of hoofed mammals in the desert, named or otherwise. Pretty annoying.